Shohei Ohtani Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Dodgers already talking big game before season even begins

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 2/3/24

No team in Major League Baseball is facing higher expectations and more pressure to win this season than the Los Angeles Dodgers. After a spending spree this offseason that included the record signing of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers are facing World Series or bust levels of expectation.

Given their roster, they know they are putting a giant target on their backs for the rest of the league. So much so that Mookie Betts said on Saturday that when other teams play the Dodgers they will be treating it like their own World Series.

"Every game is gonna be the other team's World Series" -Mookie Betts pic.twitter.com/nfwHIZiGyY
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) February 4, 2024

That is a bold claim, especially since the Dodgers are not even the defending World Series champions. Nor did they even make the World Series. In fact, they have consistently been a postseason disappointment in recent years despite their huge payrolls and impressive rosters. The only championship they have won over the past decade was the 2020 championship that came in the COVID-shortened season.

Proclaiming yourself to be the matchup everybody treats as the World Series, when you yourself are not the team owning the most recent title, is the height of arrogance. Even with their roster and offseason additions.

Along with Ohtani, the Dodgers also added Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Teoscar Hernandez to a team that already Betts, Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw on it.

The Dodgers should be one of the best teams in baseball, and they clearly know it. But if they do not make a serious run at the World Series and have real playoff success they run the risk of not only being one of the biggest flops in recent Major League Baseball history, but also completely embarrassing themselves.

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